Irene Dunham

Irene Dunham (born Irene Blanche Babcock; December 16, 1907 – May 1, 2022) was an American supercentenarian and the final living survivor of the 1927 Bath School disaster, the deadliest school massacre in United States history.

Biography Irene Blanche Babcock was born in Greenbush Township in Clinton County, Michigan in 1907. She grew up on her parents' farm in Bath Township, located along the Looking Glass River approximately from the town of Bath. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, Babcock contracted influenza and made a full recovery. Babcock stayed home from school on May 18 due to a sore throat, and was not injured in the bombing. In a 2017 interview, she recounted hearing the bombing from the family farm and rushing with her parents to the school. Her seven younger siblings survived, although one of her brothers was injured in the bombing, losing a finger.

In the wake of the bombing, the school's graduation ceremony was cancelled, and Babcock was hesitant to continue with her wedding. Ultimately, the wedding went ahead as planned on May 20. She took her husband's last name, and Irene and Laurits Dunham had three children. They began living on the north side of Lansing in 1935. Dunham refrained from discussing the bombing for decades, and only began speaking about it with family members in the 1970s.

Dunham became a centenarian in 2007, and regularly drove a car until the age of 106. She became a supercentenarian in 2017, and lived independently in her home in Lansing until 2020, when she moved to a nursing home in DeWitt Township. On March 2, 2021, Dunham became the oldest living person in the state of Michigan. Before her death, Dunham was able to meet her first great-great-great-grandchild. She is buried in the DeWitt City Cemetery in the city of DeWitt.